Chaos Avatar Desertion
by Kineil D. Wicks
Summary: With the earth ravaged, humanity must look to new planets. With his brother dead, AGiLE looks to Yugi to fill the role of Avatar. And with his newfound status, Yugi wonders about his future. Loosely based on James Cameron's Avatar and Clifford D. Simak's Desertion.
1. The Arrival

**This story has been rattling around in my head for ages. I've picked at it and picked at it, and finally I decided to do something with it.**

**This story will have characters from other franchises in it, but they don't feature prominently enough for me to properly justify it as a crossover. This story also follows James Cameron's ****_Avatar_****, but not closely enough to call it a straight rewrite.**

**Chaos Creatures are beings of my own invention. To see some images of them, follow the DeviantArt link on my profile page.**

**Let's see, anything else? Yes—go read the short story "Desertion" by Clifford D. Simak. This story follows that reasoning.**

**Yu-Gi-Oh! © 1996 Kazuki Takahashi**

**Avatar © 2009 James Cameron**

**Desertion © 1944 Clifford D. Simak**

**Chaos Creatures © K.D. Wicks**

Yugi woke up with no idea where he was.

It took him a few moments to reorient himself—he was on the starship _Fortress Whale_, heading for some new planet that needed his brother for some important mission.

Yugi launched out of his sleep pod, grateful for the zero-gravity—it made things easier for his slight, weak body. He angled over to storage, to see the only reason _why_ he was on this flight.

His brother was dead.

But there was a part of him that still remained.

Yugi gently landed and put his face against the test tube, where the results of his brother Yami's participation in AGiLE's program resided. A combination of his DNA with that of the native sentient beings of the planet they were heading for. The only reason that he, Yugi, last and closest living relative, was even out here.

He had seen it before launch, and had been startled by the bestiality of it. Now, after exiting hypersleep, seeing it again….It reminded him of his brother, of the sort of things his brother used to typify.

The sentient beings of the planet they were heading for, Yugi recalled from the vids, were called Chaos Creatures, and they were responsible for the majority of the strange look of the thing. Claws, armor, tail, wings, spines, that helmet, larger eyes, larger and more numerous teeth, longer face, barrel chest….

But still, there, around the face, and in that hair, were Yami's loyalty-inspiring qualities, and that uniqueness that set him apart.

Yugi was vaguely aware of the fact that somehow, he was going to be put into that thing. The notion scared him somewhat.

But it was the idea that he'd be back with his brother that enabled him to go forward with it.

* * *

><p>Yugi—along with pretty much everyone else on the ship who was awake and not needed to pilot—was in the viewing dock, staring at the planet they were heading towards. His feet were touching the deck, but his weight was negligible in the semi-gravity the crew had activated.<p>

The planet had several moons, and seemed to itself circle a larger gas giant, which helped to shelter it from the white star it circled. The planet itself was large enough to be a gas giant in its own right, but Yugi knew from the vids that its gravity was similar to earth's, with breathable—yet deep—atmosphere. Somehow, the planet had multiple levels, eventually going down to its magma center. But from the vids, it had looked a paradise.

Yugi noticed the gravity steadily increasing as the crew took a long approach in. he grinned, despite himself.

He was finally going to see Planet Chaos.


	2. The Introductions

**Chapter 2 and we are officially on the ground! Hooray!**

**I'd like to officially apologize to anyone tuning in and hoping for hard science fiction—I don't have the background for that, unfortunately. Thusly, any especially science-y things will be viewed through Yugi's filter (as he doesn't have the background for it either). The Corporal is based on Insufferable Military Guy from _Avatar_ and not from any personal experience or bias.**

**Kender20: Hi! Thanks for the review! I think I've seen you around on DeviantArt. Yes, I was surprised that there weren't any **_**Yu-Gi-Oh!/Avatar **_**crossovers—it's the sort of thing that has such potential. I'll have to keep an eye out for your crossover! :)**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I don't own _Yu-Gi-Oh!,_ I don't own _Avatar_, I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

Like a few others, Yugi was shoehorned into protective gear. His weak constitution, coupled with his importance to this mission, made him a priority.

He picked up his small bag, ready with the others to unload. There was a general buzz of excitement, but it had given way to professionalism. These people were either scientists or soldiers, there for a specific reason.

Yugi knew it just as well as the next person—they were looking for the next earth, someplace where humans could easily migrate to and thrive.

He was startled by someone nudging him. "'Ello, chum!"

He glanced up to see a young man about his brother's age, wild spiky brown hair barely held in place by his goggles. He had on a breathing apparatus as well—a quick glance proved everyone did.

"I seen the files," the man continued, voice tinged with what Yugi recognized as an Australian accent. "You must be Yami. Thought you'd be taller."

"I'm his brother, Yugi," Yugi said, feeling a little stiff.

"Yugi, huh? Well, nice to meet you," the man said, grabbing his hand and shaking it. Yugi hoped he wouldn't bruise. "My name's Valon. Where is your brother, anyway?"

"He's dead."

"Oh," Valon said, and it occurred to Yugi that he had been a little blunt. Valon shrugged. "Ah, well, he's in a better place and all that. So are we, come to think of it. Did you see those vids?"

Yugi nodded, feeling that that was a stupid question. "I can't wait to see those plains," Valon continued, bursting at the seams with excitement. "They remind me of me home, y'know, before."

Yugi nodded again. "Before" covered a lot of ground. "Before" was before the widespread wars that had ruined the land and used up all the resources. "Before" was the only reason he had agreed to take his dead brother's place. He wanted to see it for himself.

His wish was granted when the doors slid open.

The air that touched his skin made him instantly think of summer, although he had never experienced one. He was seized with the sudden urge to run out there and keep running.

A soldier trained his gun on him. "Don't move," he growled.

Yugi blinked, the feeling deserting him. He glanced around to see the other soldiers positioned the same way, and turned to share a confused look with Valon.

Valon, however, was blinking furiously, as though he had been overcome with the same strong urge that had struck Yugi. His vision seemed to clear, though, and he shook his head to clear the last of it out.

The soldier nodded and lowered his weapon. "It happens to everybody first time," he told them. "There's something in the air here—masks keeps out the worst of it, but whatever it is seems to be absorbed through the skin as well."

Yugi suddenly felt a crawling feeling on his bare skin and resisted the urge to scratch at it. "What's in the air here?"

"No one knows," the soldier said, shrugging. "What's your station?"

Yugi blinked, then remembered. "706."

"Same," Valon said, finally recovering.

"When you get out, follow the yellow line," the soldier said, indicating a path off to the right. "And keep a steady pace—that feeling you had gets worse if you run."

They followed the yellow line. Yugi kept his head down, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, exactly on the line. Valon, on the other hand, was looking everywhere, trying to see everything at once.

"I can't wait," Valon said, excitedly. "I mean, a stone's throw away, and look—seriously, Yugi, look!"

Yugi glanced back, then looked to see what Valon was pointing at. Beyond the tarmac and the tall, tall fence were trees, forming a huge forest, limbs just perfect for climbing. The sky was a clear blue, a small dusting of clouds skittering across. And above…it looked like….

"Floating islands?" Yugi muttered, amazed despite himself.

"We've got to get up there and check those out," Valon said, grinning. "We've got to see how those things stay airborne—my money's on magnetism."

Yugi went back to following the line, but now he couldn't resist glancing up now and again. "What part of the program are you, Valon?" Yugi asked.

"The Chaos Avatar Program, same as you."

Yugi felt his eyebrows go up, but kept his comment to himself, as they had finally arrived at a door marked _706._ He tapped a screen, which asked for an ID number. He punched his in, the screen flashed green and produced a _bing_, and the door slid open.

He and Valon sidled in. The door slid shut, the outside air was filtered out, and the exit to the airlock slid open.

Valon slid his mask off as he walked through. Yugi opted to keep his on for the moment—he could feel his lungs and heart straining with the exertion of walking across the tarmac.

No one seemed to be in the cream-colored rooms at the moment. Left to their own devices, Valon and Yugi examined the various screens, seeing diagrams and extrapolated dissections of various flora and fauna. He wandered into another, longer room to find a plate glass window that overlooked the tarmac.

"Oh, hi."

He blinked and looked away from the window to see an Asian woman with long dark hair. She was holding a folder and had apparently just come in from another room.

"You must be the new guy, right? Yami?" before he could answer, she had stuck her head back into the other room. "Hey, Mai! The new guy's here!" she pulled her head back in. "Wasn't there supposed to be two of you?"

Yugi was still trying to answer the first question when another woman, this one blonde, came in. A low whistle from behind him told him that Valon had come in too.

"Ah, good, both of you made it," the blonde said, shaking their hands. "You must be Yami, which makes you Valon."

"Guilty as charged," Valon said, grinning. "And you are, miss?"

"Mai," the blonde said. "This is Vivian."

"I have to be honest, I thought you'd be taller," Vivian said to Yugi.

"You're thinking of my brother. His squadron had a bad encounter with a wormhole—they sent me to replace him."

There was a moment of silence at this. No one knew what happened to a ship at the other end of a wormhole.

"So what's your name?" Mai asked.

"Yugi," Yugi replied.

"Close enough," Vivian said. "Come on, I want to supervise the Avatars' loading."

She led them through another corridor, which slowly changed from cream to steel gray. "You don't need to wear that indoors, by the way," Mai told Yugi.

Yugi nodded. "I don't really have what you'd call a strong constitution."

Mai shrugged as they entered a room with large windows overlooking a loading bay. They watched as first Yami's Avatar, then Valon's, was loaded in and carted off.

"A waste, the whole program."

Yugi turned to see the source of the new voice.

His stomach sank as he saw a grizzled gray-haired military man, the kind that had never intimidated Yami but scared Yugi to bits. The fact that this one had claw marks going across the side of his head didn't help matters.

"Can I help you, Corporal?" Mai asked coolly.

"Trust me, you and your program can't help me one iota," the Corporal said, pointing at the Avatars rapidly disappearing down the hall. "Company throws away a mil a whack just for them to run off. You can't fix the CAD, and trust me, I _will_ get a hold of someone who'll shut you down."

"CAD?" Valon asked Vivian.

"Chaos Avatar Desertion," Vivian explained in an undertone. "It's a recurring problem."

"That's the understatement of the year," the Corporal sneered.

"Corporal, if you don't have anything to contribute, I think you ought to offer up your services elsewhere," Mai said, waving him off.

He gave them one last disparaging glare and left.

Yugi took a deep, shuddering breath, glad to be rid of him. "What's Chaos Avatar Desertion?" he asked.

"To tell you that, I'll have to show you just what you'll be doing," Mai said. "This way."

She led them back to the cream-colored rooms, through some halls, and into a room filled with what looked like tanning beds. "These are where we'll hook you up to your Avatar," Mai explained. "Both you and your Avatar have to be wired in at first, but after that, whenever you get into one of these, you'll go to your Avatar, wherever it is within a reasonable radius."

"Reasonable radius?" Valon echoed.

"We're not sure the max range of the connection yet," Vivian explained.

"So the CAD is…" Yugi prompted.

"CAD—Chaos Avatar Desertion—occurs when the Avatar is used too much, we think," Mai said. "Usually, when you fall asleep in your Avatar, you wake up here. When CAD occurs, it gets harder and harder to return here, until eventually it's the human body that's the empty shell, and the Avatar that has it all. We've lost quite a few colleagues like that."

Yugi suppressed a shudder and noted Valon do the same. "Then why bother with the program at all?"

"Because initial attempts to connect with the sentient race here haven't gone anywhere," Vivian said. "They just operate on different brainwaves, or maybe they don't think we're worth conversing with. _That_ got the Corporal's gall."

"I guess big metal ships descending from on high isn't good enough for them, huh?" Valon said, grinning.

Yugi's legs were starting to ache. "Um, not to be an inconvenience," he said. "But can we continue this conversation sitting down?"

"Sure," Mai said, checking her watch. "It's about time for lunch, anyway."

"Great," Valon said. "I'm _starved._ Lead the way, ladies."

Mai and Vivian both socked Valon on the arm. Yugi hoped that wasn't a rite of passage.


	3. The Description

**Hello, and welcome back! We have some more description here, and then next week we'll be out and about (hopefully)!**

**Blanket disclaimers in Chapter 1 include: I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!,_ I do not own _Avatar_, I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al….**

"Okay," Mai said, after they had tucked into a sizeable lunch at the cafeteria. "You noticed the feeling you got when the ship doors opened?"

Valon and Yugi both nodded.

"We're not sure, but we're almost certain that there's some compound in this planet's atmosphere that causes that," Vivian said.

"And whatever this compound is," Mai continued. "It's what gives these Chaos Creatures—"

"The edge they need—"

"To survive on this planet, and survive for a long time."

Yugi had the feeling that Mai and Vivian had been working together for a very long time.

"As far as we can tell," Mai said, gesturing with a fork. "The life forms on this planet have a much longer lifespan than we do. Thousands of years, maybe. But at the same time—"

"Their level of maturity is negligible," Vivian said. "And they don't seem to have developed any sort of advanced society."

"They prefer to romp around in the trees all day—"

"Rather than come down and carry on a conversation."

"So, the suggestion went through to try to reach them on their own level."

"Who gave the suggestion?" Yugi asked.

Both women shrugged. "It's impossible to tell around here," Mai said. "But that's how the Chaos Avatar Program was born. The DNA was spliced, the minds were linked—"

"And we _still_ can't make contact with them," Vivian sighed.

"What?" Valon said, finally coming up for air from his gorging. "Why not?"

"They can tell the difference, somehow," Mai said, frowning. "We've tried making contact several times, but every time we approach, they run off before we can get within a mile of them."

"So you have Avatars too?" Yugi asked.

Vivian nodded brightly. "You two are pretty lucky with yours—some Avatars turn out just plain weird."

"Weird?"

"No one really understands Chaos physiology," Mai explained. "We get that they branch out into various subspecies, but making one is a crap-shoot."

"Wait until you see mine," Vivian said, still smiling.

"Is it a good one?" Valon asked.

"It'll knock your socks off."

"Excellent," Valon said, grinning. "So when do we start?"

"Your Avatars are getting sorted out as we speak," Mai said. "You'll be ready for initial joining tomorrow morning. In the meantime, wander around the compound and make yourselves comfortable. If you get lost, just follow the yellow line back to 706."

* * *

><p>Yugi had insisted that Valon go on without him. He really didn't think he could keep up with the man's boundless energy.<p>

Meantime, he found a place where he could sit and watch the comings and goings of the compound without being in the way. That way, he could familiarize himself with the place and not bug anybody.

Unfortunately, he was doomed to be bugged himself.

A barrel-chested soldier with short blonde hair came over. Yugi tightened into a ball and hoped it'd be over soon.

"So you're one of the new ones," he said, staring down at him. "Judging by that hair, you must be Yami. Nice job in Alpha Centauri, by the way."

Yugi nodded and swallowed hard. "Thanks, I'm sure he'd appreciate that. I'm his brother, Yugi."

The man grunted. "Raphael," he said. "I'd give my condolences, but I get the feeling you'll have your own soon enough."

"How d'you figure?"

Raphael grinned. "Did you see the Corporal's head?" Yugi nodded. "One of those Chaos Creatures did that to him first day he was here. And just because they're the sentient beings on this planet doesn't mean they're the apex predator."

Yugi swallowed hard again.

"Ah well, enjoy your stay, however long it's going to be," Raphael said, clapping Yugi on the shoulder in what he probably thought was a warm gesture. "Think of it this way—at least you won't die in that wreck of a planet we left."

As Raphael left, Yugi reflected that he didn't provide that much comfort.


	4. The First Day

**Chapter 4, and now we finally see the Avatars. Check out my DeviantArt page (link is on my profile) and look under the Chaos Creatures file to see some examples.**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!,_ I do not own _Avatar_, I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

Yugi woke up, mildly disoriented.

Having Valon leaning over him didn't help.

"Finally!" he said, grinning. "Come on! We get to take the Avatars out on a test run today!"

And with that, he was out the door.

"I get tired just watching him," Yugi muttered, rolling out of bed.

Roughly a quarter of an hour later, Yugi was standing next to him, back at the tanning-bed-things.

"We're going to put you in here," Vivian said, levering one open. "And then shut the lid."

Yugi had a vivid image of laundry being pressed.

"Once you're in, clear your mind and try to relax," Mai said. "You'll feel a tingling sensation—that's a good sign. It means it's working."

"You'll then feel a strong sense of vertigo, then you'll black out for a bit," Vivian said cheerily. "And then you'll wake up in your Avatar."

"Once in your Avatar, you'll be getting a lot of strange sensations, impulses, and urges."

"That's normal. But try to ignore them."

"Ignore them. There's no _try_ about it."

"So!" Vivian said, clapping her hands together. "Any questions?"

Valon and Yugi both stared at them for a few beats. Yugi finally broke the silence.

"Why me?" he moaned.

"Because we would have had to can a mil otherwise," Mai said. "All attempts to dissect and examine the Avatars have ended with them turning to dust. Literally. We don't know why."

"Come on," Vivian said, taking Valon's hand and leading him forward. "We've done this before, so we know what we're doing."

Mai led Yugi to one of the tanning beds and sat him in. He noticed that he was shaking uncontrollably.

"Just relax," Mai reminded him.

"I don't want to do this," Yugi said quietly. "What if something goes wrong?"

Mai smiled at him. "Nothing will go wrong," she told him. "It's just like falling asleep. Just remember to stay in control once you get to the other end."

And she closed the lid before he could ask her what she meant.

He was breathing rapidly, suddenly scared out of his wits. What if it went wrong? What if it all went horribly wrong? He really didn't want to die.

_Relax._

It wasn't Mai's voice so much as Yami's. Yugi was back in his elementary school years, still scared of the dark, with Yami telling him to _just relax_ already, that the sooner he got to sleep, the sooner the monsters would find that he just wasn't that bothered by them to begin with….

Yugi could feel himself relaxing, drifting….

Then an intense feeling, one of falling into nothingness—

Then blackness.

* * *

><p>Yugi felt himself resurfacing.<p>

His first thought was mild disappointment that it didn't work.

Really, he felt like he had just had a nice power nap, no aches, no pains. It was nice. He was comfortable.

He hadn't bothered to open his eyes yet, but he was pretty sure he was going to have to get up eventually. Mai would be disappointed, of course, but ah well. He was sure he was good for something else. Get up. Get—

He was beginning to become more aware of his body.

It wasn't the one he fell asleep in.

_Calm, stay calm,_ he reminded himself. But he was all too aware of sudden twitches and urges, to get up and _move_, you're wasting daylight, there's fun to be had out there—

_Stop it_, he chided, willing himself to stay still. His muscles and nerves were starting to burn with the strain of staying still.

People were talking. He wasn't sure what all they were saying, but it sounded like they were discussing him, how he seemed to be acclimating….

Something moved right next to him.

He bolted upright, eyes snapping open.

There were metal claws and glowing optics hanging from the ceiling, reaching for trails that led right to him, _in his head_. They were sharp and menacing—

But that sudden movement had started a chain reaction, and now he _had _to do something, whether attack those metal things menacing him, or—

He ran, the leads ripping away from him with painful tugs. He sensed open air, ran for it—

And burst out into the sun.

That breeze assailed him again, but this time the urge to run and never look back was overwhelming. He dug his claws in—he had claws, _claws_—and forced himself to breath, steadying himself.

He had done it. He was in the Avatar.

He was excited, terribly so, but he had to control it. But this body…he had absolutely no pain to speak of. He felt great.

Some noise—some crack over past the fence. He pivoted his head to look, feeling those gold wings on the side of his head flare out.

The fence, now that he paid attention to it, was chain-link layered with large corrugated sheets and topped with barbed wire. There were cracks here and there—maybe if he looked through it—

He stood up, flung his arms out for balance. This wasn't quite what he was expecting. He was clothed, he noted inanely, and much taller than he normally was, with a tail and something weighing down his head and his back, throwing him off-kilter—

But his mind was quickly adjusting to his body, and staying upright and moving about were getting to be less and less of a problem—

"Hey!"

He looked over at the call, to see—

Mai.

It could only be Mai.

Much like him, she had armored limbs that looked too long for her body, bat-like ears, loads of purple …but the shape of her body, the curves that delineated her, were subtly feminine. Yugi briefly wondered if all Chaos were relatively flat-chested.

She crooked a claw in a _come_ _here_ gesture. He obliged.

"You look good," she commented as he carefully walked over. "No problems so far?"

"Uh," he noised, wondering about that panicked feeling he had earlier.

"Yeah, I thought so," Mai said teasingly. "It happens to everyone the first time around. The fact that you're bipedal is a good sign, though."

Yugi was about to ask why when a heavy weight barreled into him, sending him to the ground with a pained _oufh!_

"Yugi!" a voice he recognized as Valon's exclaimed. "Good to see you up and about! Hey, you got _wings_…."

Yugi looked about to see what must have been Valon's Avatar. It fit him well, he mused—Valon was evident in it, but it looked like some kangaroo and cheetah DNA had made it in as well.

"Animal Chaos, huh?" Mai said, looking at Valon rocking on his haunches and poking at Yugi with sharp claws. "You're going to have a harder time of it, I think."

"I don't," Valon replied. "This is _great_. Now what?"

Mai turned to shout into what looked like a makeshift camp building. "Viv! Come over here and tell these boys what's next!"

Vivian's head poked out—she had antler-like horns, Yugi noticed—followed by the rest of her….

Yugi felt himself curl up into his default position, Valon hiding behind him. _Wilfing_ occurred to him, to describe how he wilted at the sight.

Vivian's Avatar very much resembled Vivian from the waist-up.

From the waist-down, however, she was serpentine in appearance, long, scaly tail taking much more than a minute to slither out.

"I told you it'd knock your socks off," Vivian said in her usual cheery voice.

Yugi made a weak noise in the back of his throat. _Just because they're the sentient beings doesn't mean they're the apex predator_. That's what Raphael had said. But what could make _that_ curl up in fear?

"Come on, you goons," Mai said, snapping them out of it. "Let's take a few laps and get you used to those new bodies of yours."

* * *

><p>A few hours later, after the girls were convinced that they were in full control of their Avatars, they were told to call it a day.<p>

"All you have to do is fall asleep," Vivian reminded them. "Easy as that."

Easy? Sleep was the farthest thing from Yugi's mind.

"You want me to fall asleep?" Valon asked, still trying to pounce on Yugi at every opportunity. "No way—I am _way_ too keyed up right now."

"You know, I _can_ assist with you dropping off," Mai volunteered.

Valon sat up. "Really?"

"Yes—it's just I'm loathe to give something that costs a mil a concussion."

Valon wilted again. "Oh."

Yugi looked to Vivian, intending to say something, but she had already dropped off to sleep, curled up in her own coils. How did she _do_ that?

He tried imitating her, curling up in one of the bunks provided and closing his eyes. No dice.

He sat back up and opted to watch Valon for a bit instead. He was busy trying to catch his own tail.

"Seriously?" Yugi asked, noting that his voice didn't match up with his usual tone. It was deeper, more like Yami's, which he found strangely comforting.

"I'm trying to get a good look at the end," Valon explained.

He went around a few more times before Yugi took pity on him and caught it for him.

"Thanks," Valon said, examining the tufted tail. "I was startin' to get dizzy."

Yugi briefly wondered if he should have let Valon go on, but at this point he was curious about his own tail. He looked behind him, saw how it was a perfect continuation of his vertebrae, long, thin, red, and ending in four sharp spikes—like the tail of a _stegosaurus_.

"You can go blind doing that," Mai chided, curled up on her own bed and watching them carefully. "Now go to sleep already. Tomorrow we can do some topical surveys of the nearby area."

"You mean go out?" Valon asked.

"Yes, I mean go out."

"Sweet," Valon said, and curled up.

Yugi imitated him, and eventually found himself drifting off.

He woke to the lid being lifted.

"So how'd you enjoy your first day?" Vivian asked.

Yugi felt himself smiling. "It was great."


	5. The Storm

**Chapter 5, and some speculation.**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!,_ I do not own _Avatar_, I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

"So what do you think?" Vivian asked Mai, later that night. The boys were in bed, but the girls were up and discussing the day's events—that, and they had to make sure Valon didn't sneak back to the link-up.

"Yugi might last a while, but I think we'll lose Valon," Mai said, nursing a cup of coffee.

Vivian nodded, unable to mount an argument for that. "He took to the Avatar like a duck to water—probably not a good sign."

They drank their coffee in silence for a while.

"Do you think Yugi will be all right?" Vivian asked.

"Certainly. He's scared enough that he won't try to use the Avatar too much, but not so much that he won't help. He's a fast learner—he'll know what to do."

"I meant about his brother."

"Oh." Mai took a sip. "He'll be fine. We are."

Vivian bowed her head at that, and they finished their coffee in silence.

* * *

><p>The next day saw a severe thunderstorm sweep the area.<p>

"I guess we're not going out today," Mai said, surveying the storm.

Yugi and Valon sat at the window, staring at the storm. The winds were strong enough to strip metal panels clean off the ships, the rain lashed so hard it formed large puddles in less than a minute, and lightning forked the sky, sending up resounding, rib-shaking _booms_ seconds afterwards.

"What about after the storm lets up?" Valon asked.

"I've seen these before. They don't let up until midnight."

"Will the Avatars be okay?" Yugi asked.

"Oh sure," Vivian said, unconcerned. "We've got them tucked away nicely."

"There's really nothing you boys can do," Mai said. "Except watch the storm, maybe."

And they did, marveling at the sheer destruction that the skies could unleash.

"I guess that's a bit of a problem as far as colonizing goes," Yugi mused.

"How d'you figure?" Valon asked.

"If the weather does this all the time."

"Yeah. But you've got to take the good with the bad, as my Grams used to say."

Yugi blinked at that.

As lightning tore the sky again, he caught a glimpse of something flying in the sky.

"Valon, did you see that?" Yugi said, pointing.

"What?"

"I saw something flying."

"Where—I see it!" Valon exclaimed, as another flash of lighting lit the sky. "There's more than one…."

Indeed, the sky was alive with them. "Mai, Viv," Yugi called, worried.

The girls came into the room. Yugi and Valon pointed out the window.

"Oh, look Mai!" Vivian exclaimed, pointing at the flying shapes.

"What are they?" Yugi asked.

"They're Chaos Creatures," Mai said, slightly stunned. "I didn't think they flew this far over."

The Chaos Creatures, if that was what they were, flew in frenzied patterns in the sky. They looked panicked to Yugi.

One suddenly broke from the pattern and dove down to the tarmac, snatching up one of the metal panels that had torn free.

A muzzle flash permeated the night as the Chaos flew away.

"That'll be the Corporal," Mai said. "That man doesn't have enough sense to get in out of the rain."

"Neither do the Chaos," Yugi observed.

A few more gun flashes, and the Chaos dispersed.

"Well, show's over," Mai said. "Come on—we'll get you boys familiarized with the local flora and fauna. We've got a lot on our databases."


	6. The Fall

**Welcome to Chapter 6, and some ****_Avatar_****-y scenes.**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own **_**Yu-Gi-Oh!, **_**I do not own **_**Avatar**_**, I **_**do **_**own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

The next morning did indeed see clear skies, so, after a quick breakfast, they were back in their Avatars eating a second breakfast.

"I feel like a hobbit," Yugi muttered, remembering a snippet of a burnt page he had read once.

"Huh?" Valon asked.

"Hobbits eat second breakfasts."

"Oh. I was about to say you shouldn't feel like a hobbit in that Avatar. _I_ feel like one next to you."

Yugi ducked his head at that. For some reason, he felt ashamed at his tall lanky appearance, out of place in this body when he was used to being five-even all his life.

They exited the compound, following Mai and Vivian through the gate and into the woods.

"Keep it together," Mai chided.

Valon and Yugi both tensed up. Keeping it together was a tall order. Every impulse going through them demanded that they run around, sticking their noses into everything and generally having an all-around good time.

Yugi shivered and followed Mai and Vivian, tapping Valon with his tail as he went by (and worried at the fact that he could control that tail now). Valon trailed after him.

"So," Valon said, after a while. "What are we looking for?"

"We're performing an analysis of the local flora," Mai supplied.

Vivian noted their blank stares. "We're studying the plants here to see if there are any similarities to plants on Earth."

"And once we find similar ones—"

"We take them back to the lab for study—"

"To see if we can't substitute said plants for Terran use."

Yugi exchanged glances with Valon and was relieved to see he looked lost as well. "So we're gathering plants?" Valon asked finally.

"To sum it up, yes."

Valon shrugged and loped over to a collection of bizarrely colored leaves. Yugi wandered around, tagging along with Valon to make sure he didn't get himself lost.

They were amusing themselves with some star-shaped moss on a log, which was playing host to a gangly-looking insect, when the forest in front of them moved.

Yugi and Valon automatically assumed those startled positions from before, which Yugi was beginning to realize both made them small targets and enabled a quick getaway.

A placid face looked at them.

Yugi blinked; whatever it was, it looked like a big cow or rhino, with a hammerhead noggin and plants growing on its back. "Mai? Viv?" Yugi called, wincing at his new voice. "What is this?"

"That's a TigerSkimmer," Vivian called. "Don't make any sudden movements."

Yugi didn't think that would be a problem. Sure, the TigerSkimmer looked pretty docile, but its foot was big enough that it could squash them by accident. And, looking beyond it, there was more than one. He really didn't want them to stampede.

No sooner had he thought that than the TigerSkimmers bellowed and ran.

To his credit, Yugi had the exact same reaction that Valon had—turn tail and run.

Unfortunately, Yugi very nearly ran right into another strange monster.

But this one was much much worse.

All glistening blue-black muscle with a gaping maw and razor-sharp teeth—and it was bigger than Yugi. Bigger than a bus, actually.

"Uh, no sudden moves?" Yugi whimpered.

"No," Mai said, already bolting. "That one is run—definitely."

The monster hissed and flared dozens of spines, but Yugi was already heeding Mai's advice and running.

Later, Yugi would recount that he ran on all fours, bounding away like he had done it all his life. At the time, however, he was too busy trying to put as much distance between him and that monster as possible.

No matter how fast he ran, however, the monster was right on his heels. He hit a root, launched himself into the air and away from it—

And realized he launched himself over a cliff.

Whatever fugue that existed vanished with that realization. He remembered the wings, tried using them, and failed, plummeting past a waterfall and into the water half-a-mile beneath him.


	7. The Drum Snake

**Welcome to Chapter 7, ladies and gents. We hope you're enjoying the ride thus far.**

**The Drum Snake that makes an appearance this chapter is an original creation whose design can be seen in my DeviantArt gallery under the "Glint and the Pirates" folder (follow the link on my profile page).**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I don't own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ or _Avatar_, I _do_ own Chaos Creatures and Drum Snakes, etc., et al…).**

Yugi resurfaced with a horrendous gasp, flailing for the nearby shore. He dug his claws into a root and clung there, gasping for breath.

A resounding roar prompted him to look back up at the cliff. The monster was pacing back and forth at the top of the cliff, snarling angrily at him.

It almost sounded like it was talking.

Finally, it shook its spined head and ran off.

It was then that the whole sum and scope of what happened occurred to Yugi.

He climbed out of the water and sat tentatively on a nearby rock, staring at the cliff and trying to figure out the best way to get back to the base.

Nothing was forthcoming. It was a sheer rock wall, and with the cliff with the waterfall, impassible. His only option was to try to find a gentler incline further downstream, and hope that that monster was gone by the time he found said gradient.

He glanced back at the forest behind him. No, _forest_ did it no justice. _Jungle_ was more like, and the trees simply got bigger and bigger the further in they went. He didn't want to be here when night fell.

Yugi stood up and began picking his way downstream. He might as well start now.

* * *

><p>An hour, two hours—it was impossible to gauge how long Yugi had been walking. Day and night cycles didn't work in the conventional manner on this planet. All he knew was that he had been walking long enough to become impatient with the cliff face that resolutely refused to become any easier to climb.<p>

Yugi stopped a moment to re-examine said cliff face. It had occurred to him a while back that with the Avatar's claws, he should be able to climb the cliff. But with the way his wings had failed him, he didn't want to risk it. Best to keep walking.

He began to when he heard something.

It was dry, scraping…sinister.

Yugi was suddenly overwhelmed by his Avatar, every instinct screaming at him _run get away fight run—_

When he managed to clear his head, he found himself high up a tree, with absolutely no recollection of how he got there.

Any annoyance he may have had with his position vanished when he saw the source of the noise.

It was a snake.

But then again, to say _it was a snake_ was a gross understatement. The head was easily larger than a bus, the body a freight train of sinuous snake muscle. Scales glinted like armor. Spines around the head flared, then settled down. And behind the head…some sort of swelling.

Something small and four-legged darted off.

That bus-sized head whipped around, lifting ten feet off the ground. Spines flared, its jaw snapped open—

The thunder from before was nothing by comparison. The noise that came from that snake was like being at the epicenter of an explosion. The prey animal dropped dead from the percussion, and Yugi was very nearly knocked from his perch—only an instinctual tightening of his claws had kept him from falling. As it was, all he could hear was a horrible ringing in his ears.

The snake swallowed the dead animal and continued on its way, occasionally slurping up other animals that had been killed by its percussive boom.

Yugi waited until his hearing returned and the slithering stopped before attempting to move. It took all of his willpower to unclench from the limb and climb back down, nerves on end. That…that must…that must have been one of those predators that could eat Chaos Creatures. Yugi was aware that he was trembling, a natural response.

Some part of him was furious at being scared so badly, and glad no one had seen it.

Yugi blinked and shook his head. That must have been one of those impulses that Mai had said to ignore.

But…climbing that tree to get away from that monster snake was an impulse too—and it had saved his life.

Yugi shivered. Now wasn't the time to be worrying about such things. Right now he was still far from getting back to base, and now that monster snake was around—it had slithered in the direction he had been travelling.

He backed up a pace and looked around. He needed a new plan.


	8. The Chaos Trio

**Chapter 8, and Yugi meets several someones…Kelsey is one of my original characters, whom I often use to round out a group (but is not filling the role of Neytiri). Once again, Chaos Designs are under "Chaos Creatures" in my DeviantArt gallery (link is on my profile page).**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ or _Avatar_, I _do_ own Chaos Creatures and Kelsey, etc., et al…).**

It took him longer to walk back upstream than downstream—Yugi couldn't help but pause every couple of steps and glance around, listening for that horrible scraping noise again. He did _not_ want to be caught by that snake.

He finally reached the cliff the waterfall was cascading down. The top looked to be the same level as the original cliff he had fallen down, so if he followed the cliff face till it petered out….

Yugi followed it through the forest, finding it ironic that there were monsters on both levels. That awful snake looked like it was big enough to swallow that black monster whole. He wondered if the monsters got bigger the further down he went.

But, he decided as he followed the curve of the cliff, he was not going any lower. It was going to take an act of congress to get him back in the Avatar once he got it back to safety, and even then he'd have to tell congress to go—

Yugi flinched into a hiding spot as he heard a new noise.

He waited, trying very hard not to breathe.

But…this noise didn't sound as threatening….As a matter of fact, it sounded like….

Yugi had heard sounds like that before—at school. The sound of kids playing.

Yugi followed the noise, wondering who on earth would be out in this jungle. Natives? Or had he fallen asleep in high school and all this was a dream? He was beginning to hope for the latter.

Yugi inched through the foliage, found a screen of leaves he could peek through….

It was a clearing.

And in the clearing was a trio of teens.

_Yep, I've fallen asleep_, Yugi thought, watching the teens scramble and tackle each other. They were wearing clothes that were sturdy yet fine, elaborate in some of the stitching, tan skinned from the sun, two brunettes and a blonde, two boys and a girl. They were much more active than the teens he was used to, speaking in some strange language that somehow was beginning to coalesce into English in his mind….

And they had tails.

Yugi blinked; these were—these were Chaos Creatures!

Now that he knew what he was looking at, he was able to catch some of the smaller details—claws, armor, ear frills….The two boys had horns coming out of their heads: the blonde had straight black horns, while the brunette had curved yellow horns. As he watched, a small spark of electricity jumped between the points.

Part of Yugi wanted to join them. He realized that was one of those impulses and ignored it. Right now he had to get back to base—

He turned to leave and stepped on some dry leaves.

The noise was loud to him, and prompted him to freeze in place.

A moment passed with nothing happening. Yugi lifted his foot to take another step—

And the screen of leaves burst aside, the two male Chaos leaping for him, claws extended—

Yugi yelped in fright and curled up tight into a ball, a holdover from his school days when bullies went after him. He hoped it would be over soon.

He wasn't listening strictly, but he noticed that the noises the Chaos were making had shifted from angry to happy to confused. The scrabbling and scratching lessened.

"Yeesh, you suck at this!"

Yugi blinked at that phrase said in plain English. The blonde had delivered it, crouching on the ground in front of his face and scowling at him.

Yugi frantically searched for a response that wouldn't restart the pummeling, but was interrupted in his search by an electrical shock applied to his spine. He leapt up with a shriek.

"Much better," the brunette male said, satisfied. "Let's try it again!"

"NO!" Yugi yelped, backing up against a nearby tree trunk and holding out a hand to ward them off. "No! Please, don't."

The look of absolute consternation on the two male's faces was almost comical; Yugi was reminded of high school again, and felt no small wonder that he had mistaken them for human at first.

Wait—weren't there three of them?

The female Chaos leaned in front of his face, long brown hair flopping down.

It took him a moment to register the fact that she was clinging upside-down from the bark just above him.

"What's _with_ you?" she asked, eyebrow cocked. "Where are you even from? Chaos don't act like that!"

"Um," Yugi noised as she dropped off the tree to the ground in front of him. He rubbed his twitching nose as he tried to come up with a convincing lie, story, whatever got him out of there alive. "Uh, a general that-way direction," he said, waving towards the cliffs. "I was uh, chased by a monster and got lost."

The look on their faces told him he just struck out. "What, you can't tell what way North is?" the blonde asked. "What, you take a bad header or something?"

Yugi grimaced. "It wasn't like I was paying attention—"

"Why don't you fly back?" the other male asked. "Don't tell me you can't _fly._"

"Um—"

"_Sheut,_ he can't."

Yugi blinked; did Chaos curse? That certainly sounded like one of the commoner curses he had heard bantered around back home—

"That way sort of that way?" the female asked, pointing.

"Uh," Yugi noised, glancing around. Where were the cliffs from here?

"Because over that way is that weird compound with those guys with guns and—" she suddenly glared at him with suspicion.

Yugi gulped, suddenly sensing that anything he said was about to be called into sharp question.

The males, however, looked impressed. "Wait, you _escaped _from there?" the blonde asked.

Yugi felt his eyebrows crumple in confusion, but the males had already gone far past him in the conversation, chattering with each other excitedly about escapees and what some guy named Wilson had said and wasn't that awesome that they met someone who had enough sense to break away instead of being one of those trained pets—

"Wait, wait," Yugi said, holding up both hands and feeling very, _very_ behind. "There were _others?_"

"Oh sure," the brunette male said, glancing up from his conversation. "Did they tell you you were the only one or something?"

"Well, no, but…."

"Anyway, congratulations," the blonde said, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and hugging him close. "Don't worry, stick with us—we forgive you for being an idiot, by the way; everyone knows those guys are morons."

Yugi had to swallow to keep from arguing the point—it wouldn't do for them to find out that _he_ was one of those supposed morons.

The female cleared her throat. "Oh right—intros," the blonde said. "I'm Joey, that's Tristan," he pointed at the other male. "And that's Kelsey," he said, pointing at the female.

"Ah, I'm Yami—_Yugi_." Great—everyone else had confused him with his brother, now _he_ was doing it. Granted, it didn't help that he sounded like his brother in the Avatar...

"Yami Yugi?" the female, Kelsey, asked. "That's…interesting."

That made Yugi feel like he had just blundered badly.

Joey and Tristan were tugging him along. "Come on, quit digging your heels," Joey chided.

"It's just—I just—" they were dragging him further away from his goal. He needed a means to distract them. "There's a giant snake—" he blurted.

The three Chaos froze. _Wilfed._ The word came back to Yugi unbidden.

"What?" Kelsey asked, fear in her voice. "Where? When?"

"Uh, it wasn't too long ago—"

Yugi found himself forcibly dragged along. "Come on," Tristan said. "We've got to get home."


	9. The Home Tree Advantage

**Chapter 9, and we see Home Tree, which (in this story) was also based off of the mountain-trees in Martha Wells _Books of the Raksura_ series. If you have time, go look them up—they're good. _Wilfed_, which is a term I've been using, is from Kathryn Lasky's _Guardians of Ga'Hoole _series, which is also very good.**

**Kender20, thanks for the review! Perhaps…we shall see. ;) And thank you very much for recommending my story to your friend! Much happiness occurred. :D**

**The Rainwalker—thank you for that review! I was glowing from that review—still am, come to think of it. And…wow, I think words have just failed me. But rest assured, Yugi's still got a lot of adventures left in this story (and I will indeed head over and check out your story when I get the chance!). :D**

**Okay then! Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_, I do not own _Avatar,_ I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, Kelsey, and Elsie...whom we will be encountering this chapter...).**

Twilight was nearing.

"Hey, wait—" Yugi said, trying to get them to let go and failing.

"Don't worry," Joey said. "We're almost there."

Yugi didn't want to know where _there_ was—but even if they did let go of him, he didn't have much opportunity to escape; Kelsey was bringing up the rear, and he was certain that these three were more comfortable in their bodies than he was in his.

And then they pulled him into a huge clearing, and all thoughts of escape evaporated.

There, in the middle of the clearing, was a tree that had to be bigger than a skyscraper—like the Chrysler Building had sprouted branches and roots. Roots taller than townhouses tapered away into the forest. Knotholes peppered the bark, warm light emerging from a few of them. And far, far above…the floating islands that had enraptured Valon so, tethered to the tree by growing, creeping vines.

He finally found his voice again. "This…this is where Chaos_ live?_"

"_One_ of the places," Joey stressed. "_Chaos Creatures_ live where they _want_ to."

"Yup," Tristan said, looking up at the tree with pride. "Home is where your rump rests."

Kelsey made a _tch_ noise in the back of her throat and darted for a crack in the base of the tree. Joey and Tristan followed, pulling a now-willing Yugi along.

The crack was two stories tall, at least. The four of them could have walked through arm-in-arm and not touched the sides.

"How would this keep the snake out?" Yugi asked, awed. There were glowing crystals sitting in notches in the wood.

"Auntie keeps them out," Kelsey said from further ahead.

"Auntie?" Yugi echoed blankly.

"Yeah, you'll like her," Joey said. Then, louder, so it could be heard at the end of the tunnel, "Hey, Auntie! We brought someone!"

A female voice answered. "Joseph, if you've brought home another critter to be your 'pet,' you've got another thing—"

They reached the end of the tunnel.

Yugi nearly sat down, so overwhelming was the interior. Warm wood, warm glow trails and nooks and crannies leading up and away—and Chaos Creatures, dozens of them, maybe a hundred or more, even. Every shape and size and crawling up and down or peering curiously at them before dodging away into some hole, others tackling or playing with each other….

And then suddenly there was something massive in front of him, casting him in shadow.

If he wilfed any thinner he'd pop out of existence. The thing in front of him was various rose colors, a dragon monster as big as a 747—no wonder they weren't worried about the snake.

It was from this beast that the female voice was coming from. "This is Yami," Joey said, tugging on Yugi's arm. "He's new."

"Oh," the dragon-thing said interestedly, lowering her head to see him better. As with Mai and Vivian and Kelsey, there was something subtly feminine about her, about the lines of her body. It wasn't overwhelming, but there was no mistaking her for male.

Yugi felt his nose twitch and rubbed at it.

Kelsey hit him. "Don't be rude," she hissed.

Rude? What was so rude about—but Chaos probably had different customs.

The dragon-thing made a pensive noise in the back of her throat. "_Oh,_ I see. I'll take things slow then, dear." She straightened up a bit and backed up a pace. "I'm Elsie, but everyone here calls me Auntie. I'm what is known as a Guard Dragon Chaos, and it's my job to keep everyone here safe. Are you with me so far?"

Yugi stared.

The dragon—Elsie—nodded. "It's a bit overwhelming at first, dear. Don't worry."

"Come on," Joey said, hugging Yugi's shoulders again. "You can bunk with us—we'll ignore the gossip."

Joey and Tristan dragged him up to a large knothole near the top, dizzyingly high; Yugi tried very hard not to look down. They pulled him through to a hollow that was surprisingly well-furnished, with the exception of having all the bed items on the floor in the center. There were three distinct piles in the corners, then one corner where all sorts of junk was tossed. Joey and Tristan began clearing that corner out.

"This corner's yours," Joey explained, examining a birdlike skull before tossing it aside.

"Hey, easy with that!" Tristan chided.

"Are they related?" Yugi asked Kelsey.

Kelsey blinked and looked at them. "No, but you'd never be able to tell. They go everywhere together."

Yugi looked at her. "What about you?"

She shrugged. "I tag along because they're entertaining. I guess we're siblings, in a weirdly dysfunctional way."

Yugi blinked at her choice of words.

Joey and Tristan finished up by getting into one of their tussles again; Kelsey simply went to the bed in the center and straightened up a group of well-stitched stuffed animals, making sure they were all sitting just right before she curled around them.

"Hey! Don't hog 'em all!" Joey said, bounding over. "You got them all last time!"

"Mine," Kelsey hissed back, as Tristan leaped on them.

"Hold it, wait," Yugi said, drawing their attention. "You're all _how_ old?"

They blinked at him. "What do you mean?" Tristan asked finally.

"I didn't think teenagers fought over stuffed animals. And uh, you don't all _sleep_ together too, do you?"

"What's a teen?" Joey asked.

Yugi had never had to describe that before, and he didn't think conventional years cut it on this planet. "Between being a kid and being an adult."

The trio pondered that. "Well, we're not young'uns anymore, and we're not fledglings because we haven't gotten our wings in yet, so we're Chaoslings," Kelsey explained, then pointed at him. "_You_ have your wings, so technically you're a fledgling, unless you've flown with those."

"I haven't."

Kelsey made a pensive noise, then snapped at Joey trying to snatch one of the stuffed animals away. Yugi gave up trying to reason with them and went to the now-empty corner, curling up and trying to feign sleep. In reality, he was keeping one eye on those weird Chaos-kids—for he was beginning to be more and more convinced that they could actually be considered younger than him.

Joey and Tristan eventually drifted off to sleep, curled up in tight balls and twitching occasionally, backs to each other. Kelsey was motionless beyond them. Yugi began to drift off.

A movement made him open his eyes again.

Kelsey was crouched in front of him with one of the stuffed animals—it looked crustacean-like, like a cross between a lobster and a scorpion, but also vaguely cute.

"This is Creelie," she explained. "he likes to scare bedbugs."

"Okay," Yugi noised, not sure what to do with that information.

She put it down next to him. "I just didn't like the idea of you sleeping by yourself."

And with that, she went back to her spot on the center bed.

Yugi examined the stuffed animal. It was finely stitched, with elaborate tooling and threadwork, but the creature it depicted was vaguely frightening and eldritch—not exactly the sort of thing he wanted to sleep with, but if he returned it, that might put him in poor graces with the Chaos Creatures; he had already flubbed up once, and he didn't want to do it again.

So, with no fuss, he curled up with the toy and closed his eyes.

The events of the day caught up with him, and he fell into a sound sleep.

* * *

><p>Yugi's first thought when he woke up was that he was in a tomb.<p>

What happened? One minute he was curled up asleep, the next he was laid flat in pitch blackness, in pain and—

It came back to him. The Avatar. The program. And everything—

The lid opened and Mai, Vivian, and Valon peered in fretfully.

"Are you all right?" Valon asked.

"Where have you been?" Vivian squawked.

"Is the Avatar all right?" Mai asked, revealing her main concern.

Yugi beamed at them. "Yes, it's all right," he said. "And you won't _believe_ where I've been…."


	10. The Deal

**Chapter 10, and we begin to get the measure of things…I think.**

**Rainwalker, thanks for the review! I always do a happy dance when I get a review—my parrot must think I'm crazy. I hope everything went swimmingly for you—real life comes first. :) And pretty much—a Guard Dragon Chaos in a location generally indicates that it's a good place to be. As you're the second person to ask, yes: Téa does make an appearance, but not for a while.**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I don't own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_, I don't own _Avatar_, I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

"You're kidding."

"Nope," Yugi said triumphantly, shaking his head before biting into his sandwich. He was in the lunch room with Vivian, Valon, and Mai sitting around him listening intently, although his story had drawn an audience.

Mai and Vivian were enthusiastic. "This is great," Vivian said.

"This is wonderful," Mai agreed.

"We've been calculating the possibility of a Chaos nest—"

"And this proves it."

"Can you imagine the possibilities?"

"You have to stay there."

"You can learn so much about Chaos culture!"

"And what you learn, you can bring back here, and we can finally bridge the gap!"

Yugi made a pensive noise and glanced at the skylight. The sky was beginning to brighten. "So…anything in particular I should be nosy about?"

"Customs," Vivian said, at the same time Mai said "Genetics."

The crowd was beginning to murmur as well, giving suggestions at times. Yugi was beginning to grasp how big this was, really, that these Chaos had accepted him in. "When should I start?" Yugi asked. "We don't really know Chaos sleep patterns—"

Mai hopped up. "Come on—we've got to get you back in the Avatar right away."

* * *

><p>Yugi woke up in the Avatar, feeling refreshed.<p>

That feeling vanished when he realized he had "Creelie" in his mouth.

He spat the stuffed animal out and stretched, marveling at how much _better_ he felt in this body.

_Don't think of that,_ he chided. _You start thinking like that, and that's what leads to the Desertion. Remember that._

He opted to glance about instead, and noted that Joey and Tristan were both gone. Kelsey was sitting there, though, straightening out the stuffed animals again while keeping one eye on Yugi.

"Oh, good—you're up. You sleep pretty soundly."

That made Yugi feel like he had screwed up again—but if Chaos Creatures were light sleepers, there was nothing he could do about it. Instead, he opted to ignore that question, instead picking up the stuffed animal Creelie and taking it over to Kelsey. "Um, what eh, what _is_ this exactly?"

"Creelie, remember?" Kelsey said, straightening out a stuffed animal that looked like a cross between a manta ray and a Chaos Creature. "Or were you looking for 'stuffed animal'?"

"I meant, what kind of _creature_ is this?"

Kelsey looked at it, her head tilted. "It's called an Eldritch, I think. They like science, so Wilson gets along with them well."

Yugi decided not to ask what a Wilson was. "About last night—when I rubbed my nose, you said it was rude."

Now Kelsey was looking at him with her head tilted, although her expression had now shifted to _you idiot_. "How do I explain this," she muttered. Then, slightly louder. "Chaos Creatures…scent each other as part of a greeting—your nostrils flaring. If you rub your nose when you're doing that, it means you don't like that person."

Yugi imagined doing that the next time he met the Corporal, but decided against it—he didn't like the idea of being shot. He decided to ask about another stuffed animal, holding up a large yellow bird with small wings and strong-looking legs.

"That's a Chocobo," Kelsey told him. "They're native to the plains."

"How far away is that?" Yugi asked, glancing out of the large knothole. "It looks like trees for miles."

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing."

Yugi blinked and looked at her. "Huh?"

She had her arms crossed in a decidedly belligerent stance. "I know what you are, really—you're one of those sleepwalkers. You fall asleep here, you wake up in that compound, and vice-versa."

Yugi blinked again. "Wait—what? How—"

"—Do I know? It was explained to me." Her glare deepened. "What, did you think Chaos were stupid?"

"No—"

"Did you think a Chaos Creature couldn't tell the difference?"

"No—"

"Then what were you thinking, lying like that?"

"I was thinking about self-preservation," Yugi said, feeling his face flush and hating it.

"Then you shouldn't lie."

"If you _knew_, then why even bring me here?" Yugi asked, gesturing. "Why risk exposing this place?"

Kelsey's expression was thunderous, but at the same time…. "Because you sleepwalkers never stay that way."

That gave Yugi a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach; he resisted the urge to shudder. "I don't think that's true—whoever told you might be mistaken."

Kelsey shrugged and turned her back to him; it was obvious she was done with him.

"Hey, don't be that way," Yugi said, her approval suddenly important to him. He walked around until he was in her line of sight again. "Okay, so maybe I _am_ a 'sleepwalker'—did it ever occur to you that humans just want to make meaningful contact with Chaos?"

Kelsey looked away, but it was obvious she was dying to ask him something. "What's a human?" she said finally, tone saying it was killing her to ask.

"You know those beings at the compound? Those are humans," Yugi explained, settling in to a cross-legged position. "They don't have wings or tails or claws, but they're pretty ingenious. I'm human, technically—when I wake up there."

She was glancing at him now. "How smart can they be?"

"They devised a way to travel light-years from Earth to here."

"That tells me nothing."

"They devised a way to take a human mind and put it in a Chaos body."

"That seems marginally impressive."

"You seem pretty determined _not_ to be impressed."

"I do."

"I'll tell you what," Yugi said, picking up one of the stuffed animals and holding it in front of her. "You answer _my_ questions, and I'll answer yours. Sounds fair?"

Kelsey stared at him for a long time, to the point that he had to fight to keep from fidgeting.

"Deal," she said finally, taking the stuffed animal away and shaking his hand.


	11. The Unwilling Admission

**Time for Chapter 11! :D "Branching" is another term from _Guardians of Ga'Hoole_, by the way.**

**Rainwalker, thanks for the review! Well, I'm ahead on presents this year, but outdoor decorating has taken a back-burner due to rain. :| Yup, it didn't take long. And now you make me wonder if Kaiba is going to make an appearance in the story….And never with the Corporal around. ;) I hope you enjoy this next chapter! :D**

**Kender20, thanks for the review! We shall soon see….And thank you! I shall! :D**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_, I do not own _Avatar_, I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc….).**

"Say, whatever happened to Joey and Tristan, anyway?" Yugi asked, after an hour of back-and-forth with Kelsey.

"They went out," she said, waving at the knothole. "They're practicing branching for when their wings come in."

"And you're not?" Yugi asked, feeling confused.

In response, she turned her back to him and pulled her long hair out of the way. "Check for me."

"What?"

"Check to see if I'm budging—if my wings are coming in."

"Er…."

She turned her head to glare at him. "Remember when you said to tell you about acceptable Chaos behavior?"

"This is one of those things?"

"Just feel up and down my back."

Yugi did so, trying not to feel embarrassed at this—he certainly wouldn't have done this to Mai or Vivian. "What am I feeling for?"

"You don't feel anything?"

"Well, no…."

Kelsey blew out a sigh. "I've been taking longer than the others—it stinks, it really does."

Yugi tried to think of a way to make her feel better. "Well…why don't you try, uh, branching? It's not like you can't practice now."

She gave it some thought. "Well, it's kind of pointless for me to, but you definitely do." she stood up and tugged on his hand. "Come on."

He followed her to the knothole. She stepped through onto a huge branch, as wide across as a city street. Yugi stuck his head out, looked down—

And immediately wished he hadn't.

"What's the matter with you?" Kelsey asked, looking back in at him.

"I…I have a thing about _heights_," Yugi said, feeling that weird emotion from before, when he had been…_angry_ at himself, for being afraid. That's what that was.

"You're _afraid?_ Of _heights?"_ Kelsey asked in disbelief, her tone aggravating that frustrated feeling. "What kind of Chaos Creature—_winged_ Chaos Creature at that—is afraid of heights?"

"It's not like they work—"

"What?" full disbelief was on her face. "Come on—you're branching. Now."

Yugi dug his claws in. "No, I'm not."

"Oh, it's all right for _me_ to go around jumping on limbs, but not for you? Nuh-uh. Get out here."

"_No,_ Kelsey."

Her retort was cut off by Joey and Tristan barreling into her and tumbling into the hollow.

"We've got breakfast!" Joey said, holding up a large bundle of what looked like bananas. "Hey, you're up finally—you sleep like a log."

Yugi glanced at Kelsey as Joey and Tristan straightened themselves out; she shook her head. He gave her a confused look; she shrugged. Yugi marveled at the fact that he had just held a conversation without actually saying anything.

"Anyway, we found breakfast," Joey said, shoving Tristan away from the fruit. Tristan tackled him and shoved him away, to the point that both of them were fighting.

Kelsey simply took the bunch of fruit and set it between her and Yugi. "You peel it like this," she said, demonstrating. "And you eat this part," she ate the fruit. "And you do _this_ with the peel."

And she tossed it right in Joey and Tristan's way.

They hit it and went skidding.

"Hey, it's just like a banana," Yugi observed, pleasantly surprised.

"It _is_ a banana," Kelsey told him.

"No, it—uh…." How to explain this? "There's this fruit on Earth called a banana, that looks just like this, but it can't be, because Earth isn't here."

Kelsey blinked at him. "Okay, I heard you, you spoke plain Chaos, but I didn't understand any of that."

"Er…remember when I said we came from Earth?"

"Yes—you didn't make any sense _then_ either."

"Well—"

"Where's Earth?" Joey asked, taking a moment from the tussle to listen.

How to explain this? "Earth is…far away from here." He pointed up. "Past the sky?"

"It can't be past the sky," Tristan said. "There's no atmosphere up there—you'd die of suffocation before you got to the moon."

"Some Chaos have done it before," Joey argued.

Yugi stared; okay, he wasn't expecting a working knowledge of the limits of the atmosphere from these two.

"You sound like Wilson," Kelsey opined.

There was that Wilson again. "What's a Wilson?" Yugi asked, deciding if he was going to sound like an idiot, it was best to get it out of the way.

"He's a Lesser Chaos Creature," Kelsey explained. "He travels around, but he always returns here; you'll like him—he brings a lot of stuff."

"Lesser Chaos Creature?" Yugi repeated blankly.

"Hey, come on!" Joey said, leaping on them. "We're wasting daylight!"


	12. The Bad Dream

**Welcome to Chapter 12, where we see some terms and speculations. Ah, the joys of finding the right balance of explanations and action….Artwork relating to Chaos Creatures can be found in my DeviantArt gallery, for those who are curious (follow the link on my profile page).**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!,_ I do not own _Avatar_, I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

"So, from the sounds of it, they have five broad subspecies of Chaos," Yugi was explaining to Mai, Vivian, and Valon. "And then they also break it down by body structure, so you can get a mix of them. There's Animal, Greater, Lesser, Dragon, and Titan Chaos; and then there's Mach, Speed, Power, Flying, Blast, Jet; and _then_ there's element types—"

"So what type am I?" Valon asked, earning him a solid _thwack_ from Mai.

"Speed Animal Chaos?" Yugi guessed. "And as it turns out, that tree is just _one_ of the places Chaos live—apparently, it's sort of a…a nursery for Chaos."

"So there are family units?" Vivian asked excitedly, looking up from her notes.

"I don't know," Yugi admitted. "The only adult-looking Chaos I've seen there is Auntie—_Elsie_—maybe the Chaos leave their children with one of these 'Guard Dragon Chaos' and move on."

"It's funny," Mai said, flipping through her notes. "There was evidence of there being family units—I wonder what changed."

"So this fledging thing," Valon began, trying to hedge back into the conversation. "It's important, right?"

Yugi nodded. "Very. All these 'Chaoslings' kept checking each other's backs today—Kelsey said it's a big deal."

He had explained Kelsey, Joey and Tristan and how he had somehow been "adopted" into their unit, which Joey had termed a "Havoc"—Yugi guessed that was a Chaos unit. "Socializing seems important to these Chaos," Yugi continued slowly, thinking. "I mean, from the sounds of it, there are some that roam around by themselves, but it looks like none of these Chaos are related, and yet they play and carry on like close siblings."

"Like I said, Chaos think differently," Mai said, jotting down a note. "The way they all flop down together to sleep shows that."

Yugi didn't have the heart to tell her he had done the same thing too—he had been exhausted from a day full of running around the jungle.

"So what did I miss here?" Yugi asked. "Anything important?"

"The Corporal led an expedition south to try to expand the base," Mai said offhandedly. "I told him it'd be better if he took out that black monster or that huge snake you mentioned, but as usual, no one listens to genius."

"I don't suppose you could introduce me to your friends," Valon began, to be cut off by Mai slapping him again.

"Right now I wouldn't mind getting something to eat and then going to sleep—_real_ sleep," Yugi said, mentally tired by the day's events.

"I'll go get something then," Vivian said, standing up.

"I'll go with you," Valon said, following her.

Yugi deduced Mai's expression as she watched them go. "Valon's been putting the moves on Viv?"

"It seems to be a natural thing for him," Mai observed. "Go to bed, Yugi—we'll wake you when it's time to eat."

* * *

><p>Yugi was back in the Avatar, with Kelsey teaching him how to branch.<p>

"It's very simple," she said, hopping from one to the next. "You start off small, and get a feel for the distance you can get. Then, you go bigger. I think the record for this tree is twenty feet."

Yugi eased out onto the branch, still unsure of the whole thing.

"Come on, Yami!"

_Yes, come on, Yami,_ that voice that sounded very much like his brother said. _You left the old you back home. This is the new you. Go for it._

For once, Yugi didn't chide at himself. He made the death-defying leap.

In that moment, he was weightless, nothing between him and the ground fifty thousand feet below.

And then he touched down.

"Nice, very nice," Kelsey said, nodding. "But I can do better."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Yugi challenged.

And they leapt from branch to branch, achieving larger and larger gaps, and his wings were unfurling….

"Hey! You're flying!"

He was—and with a few twists of his wings he was banking around, waving at an elated Kelsey as he flew by….

"All right—go Yugi!"

Wait, what? That voice—

Yugi looked around, spotted Yami up on one of the higher branches, waving and grinning.

That wasn't right—he was dead—this was—

His wings felt like lead weights had been tied to them. They went down, he followed, with Kelsey screaming in alarm—

"Yugi!"

Yugi jerked awake to see Mai standing over him with concern, one hand on his shoulder.

"Are you all right?" she asked. "You cried out in your sleep."

"I'm fine," Yugi said, rubbing at his eyes. But the dream was so _real!_ He could still hear that screaming—

He could still hear that screaming.

But it wasn't organic. It was an alarm.

"What's going on?" Yugi asked, panicked.

Mai's expression was grim.

"The Corporal's back with his troops," she said. "It didn't go well."


	13. The Bad News

**And now, time for lucky Chapter 13! Such fun!**

**Rainwalker, thanks for the review! No worries—real life comes first. :) Haha, thank you! I've spent a lot of time over the years developing Chaos Creatures, and I was able to develop them further in my Bachelor and Master theses as well—going into entertainment degrees really pays off. :D Good question—we shall see soon enough. Thank you very much, and I hope you enjoy this next chapter as well. :)**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!,_ I do not own _Avatar_, I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

Yugi joined Vivian and Valon, along with Mai, at the main entrance to the base. There was a crowd there, and for once, Yugi wished he had his Avatar's height.

"What's going on?" Yugi asked Valon. "I can't see."

"Apparently, there was a cluster of Chaos—oh wait, _havoc_ of Chaos," Valon said. "And they had a fight with the troops over there. I don't think it went well with either side."

Yugi managed to squeeze through enough to see some soldiers go by with stretchers. Raphael was cradling his broken-looking arm.

Yugi sank back into the crowd; he didn't want to see this.

It didn't match up with the impression he had gotten of the Chaos at all. But maybe the juveniles weren't as vicious as the adults. Couldn't the actions of Joey and Tristan be construed as play-fighting? It was like a kitten that grew up into a panther.

He shrunk back even further when the Corporal shouldered through the crowd to come face to face with Mai.

"See what your little heathen friends do?" he hissed, loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Your men need you, Corporal," Mai replied evenly.

He scowled and stalked away.

Yugi watched him go…and locked eyes with Raphael.

It wasn't like with Kelsey—he couldn't telegraph what he was feeling into words, let alone gestures. But Raphael shrugged and mouthed something.

It looked very much like _that's the way it goes._

Yugi frowned. He didn't like that at all.

But as he turned to go, he noticed someone else who seemed disappointed in the results of that day.

But when he looked again, whoever it was was gone.

* * *

><p>"What caused that?"<p>

Yugi was due to get back in the Avatar, but he was unwilling to do so before he found out what happened. He couldn't go and face the Chaos with that image in his mind.

"The Corporal has a habit of starting skirmishes," Mai said, pushing him down into the ironing bed (Yugi just couldn't get that image out of his mind). "Anything could have caused that."

Yugi made a dissatisfied noise in the back of his throat, something he picked up from the Chaos Creatures.

"Hush, you," Mai chided, lowering the lid. "That's why you're going back—you're learning what makes them tick, remember?"


	14. The Informant

**Chapter 14, ladies and gentlemen! We hope you've enjoyed the ride thus far. :)**

**I would like to point out that because of the holiday coming up, I'll probably only update once next week and the week after. But you all will be busy with cookies and presents anyway. :)**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!,_ I do not own _Avatar,_ I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

Yugi woke up to Joey and Tristan jumping up and down on him.

"Hey! _Geoff!"_ he yelped, scrambling away.

"Finally!" Joey said, leaping off. "Come on, we've got stuff to do today!"

"Like what?" Yugi asked, feeling trepidation.

Joey looked at Tristan. "Look at him," he muttered. "He's got to have a day planner for everything, doesn't he?"

And with that, those two were off.

Kelsey glanced at Yugi as they followed.

"What is it?" she asked.

"What makes you think there's something?" Yugi asked, then relented under her glare. "It's just—" he lowered his voice. "There was a fight between the people at the base and a…havoc of Chaos."

Kelsey blinked. "Do you know who?"

"The Corporal." When she continued to stare: "You mean the Chaos? No, I don't know—I was kind of hoping you did."

Kelsey shrugged. "Elsie doesn't let us around there—she says it's dangerous."

"I thought Chaos were supposed to be indestructible," Yugi scoffed, remembering Joey and Tristan's bragging.

"Adult Chaos, yes—Chaoslings are a bit more delicate than that."

"You'd never know it, talking to them."

"Yes, well, Joey and Tristan don't use their brains very often."

"And yet you hang around with them."

"The trick is to always shine by comparison."

And with that, Kelsey leapt the final ten feet onto Elsie's back.

"Yeah, I'm not doing that," Yugi muttered, taking the long way down.

When he reached the bottom, it was to find that Kelsey had reported what he said to Elsie.

"Really?" Elsie was saying. She turned to Yugi.

"Couldn't there have been identifying marks?" she asked.

Yugi shrugged. "I was asleep at the time."

Elsie rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know but—or do you mean you were asleep _there?_"

"Uh…."

Elsie made a pensive noise, then stood up and walked out. It was a four-legged gait, but Yugi was surprised at how softly she could walk. He wondered if the dinosaurs were like that—deceptively graceful.

"Don't wander off too far, kids," she called back.

"Where is she going?" Yugi asked Kelsey, who had slid off of Elsie's back.

"To do whatever," Kelsey said. "Come on, before the boys tackle you again."


	15. The Worst Insults

**Chapter 15, ladies and gents! We hope you had a very Merry Christmas and are currently having a Happy Boxing Day. :D**

**Rainwalker, thanks for the review! A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you as well! Yes, I noticed the chapters were short when I posted them—it took a lot of debating before I posted them as-is, since I felt that maybe they'd lose something if I combined them (and then I'd have to go through dozens of pages and re-number the chapters…). Glad they weren't dull—that was my main worry. I agree, there seems to be a few holes in that story….Hopefully I'll be able to address them and provide a few more twists and turns before it's all over. :)**

**Just so you know, I won't update again until next year—which will be in about a week. :) After that, we will resume our regular bi-weekly schedule.**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own ****_Yu-Gi-Oh!,_**** I do not own ****_Avatar_**** [which is on today, apparently], I ****_do_**** own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

Yugi quickly found out that there was no such thing as a sedate Chaos.

His intention had been to sit on the sidelines and observe the going-ons quietly, but every time he did, either Joey or Tristan—or even one of the other Chaoslings—would tackle him.

"Can't you just let me sit by myself?" Yugi asked finally.

"Why? Are you sick?" Joey asked.

"No…."

"Then get over it!" Joey exclaimed, dashing off to some new activity.

"I get tired just watching him," Yugi muttered.

Later, during lunch, Tristan grilled him on the condition of the Chaos at the compound. Yugi answered truthfully.

"Whoa, they have a Nagus Chaos there?" Joey asked, awed.

"Nagus?" Yugi asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"But you said you weren't allowed to do a lot of running and such, right?" Tristan pressed. Yugi nodded. "See, there's your problem. You're so used to being forcibly sedate that you don't know how to actually act like a Chaos."

"I thought it was the sugar intake," Yugi muttered to Kelsey. She made a dismissive noise and continued with her meal.

"So what, they're capturing Chaos and making them zombies?" Joey asked.

"I just think it's strange that Chaos from there are always so low-key," Tristan argued. "That's just not natural."

"Does anyone know where Elsie went off to?" Yugi asked, hoping to steer the conversation in a different direction.

"No clue," Joey, Tristan, and Kelsey said together.

"She goes off to eat occasionally," Kelsey posed. "But sometimes she goes out and brings more Chaoslings back here."

"Why?" Yugi asked, confused.

"Because she's a Guard Dragon Chaos," Joey said simply, as though that solved everything.

"He's never seen them before, dingus," Tristan chided. Then, to Yugi: "A Guard Dragon Chaos is a protector, basically—their whole job is to keep what they're guarding safe."

"And Auntie feels it's her job to keep Chaoslings safe," Kelsey said.

"But she keeps bringing more here," Yugi said, beginning to understand.

"Yep—it's an easily defensible area," Tristan said.

"If a Guard Dragon isn't guarding something, then it doesn't feel comfortable," Kelsey explained. "So with some of the Chaoslings fledging, she's off in search of more to protect when she's done here."

"And her stomping around keeps the Drum Snake at bay," Joey added.

"Drum Snake?" Yugi repeated blankly.

"Remember that big snake that you said you encountered?" Tristan asked.

Yugi nodded; it was impossible to forget.

"_That's_ a Drum Snake."

"Snakes are a Chaos' natural enemy," Kelsey told him.

"But a Nagus is…." Yugi began, confused.

There were exclamations from the group. "Don't _ever_ tell a Nagus that," Joey ordered. "You'll get thrown into deep space over that."

"Listen, noob," Tristan added. "Two things you never _ever_ call a Chaos: You don't call them a coward, and you don't call them a snake. That's like the _ultimate_ insult."

"Right," Yugi said, feeling his life would be threatened if he continued in that vein.

"Great!" Joey said, finishing up his lunch. "Now _you_ come on—we've got to get you into proper Chaos shape. If you spent all day lounging around, then it's no _wonder_ you can't use those wings."


	16. The Pink Juggernaut

**Chapter 16, everybody! Kender20, Rainwalker, it's the moment you've been waiting for—the first glimpse of Téa/Anzu! :D**

**Anywho, I hope you all had a good New Year's! Just so you know, next week we'll be resuming our bi-weekly update schedule!**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!,_ I do not own _Avatar,_ I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

Elsie didn't return until late in the day. When she did, she had fresh scratches on her armor, and a young Chaosling nestled in the divot between her shoulders.

As Yugi found out later, the Corporal and his soldiers had gone out again to wipe out the rest of the Chaos havoc. They had done more damage than initially supposed, because many had died and disintegrated. The ones that had survived were busy resting up their wounds, and that was when the soldiers attacked.

The soldiers had wiped out the Chaos, and were about to kill the one Elsie found, until Elsie intervened.

As it turned out, _intervened_ was not a strong enough word: she had charged them, roaring, a great big dragon out for their blood (Yugi noticed that the soldiers had neglected to mention Elsie's pinkness). They did what any sane person would do: run.

Which meant that the Corporal did not run. He stayed, trying to wipe Elsie out, who simply shrugged off his bullets, snatched up the remaining Chaos, and stalked off, catching the Corporal with the tip of her tail as she went. It took a lot of Yugi's willpower to not leap up cheering at that news.

The Chaoslings were fairly subdued at the news of the massacred Chaos, however. And the one nestled in Elsie's shoulders hadn't moved since it had arrived. And Yugi—being Yugi—couldn't help but feel guilty about that.

"Come on, let's go to bed," Kelsey said, drifting up the steps.

Yugi followed, but stopped when he got to the level that Kelsey had been when she jumped down onto Elsie. Giving it another look, it didn't seem as high as it had been.

"Where are you going?" Kelsey asked.

But he had already dropped gingerly onto Elsie's back. Elsie didn't give any indication that she had noticed. He eased his way up to the Chaosling.

He was surprised to see that it was female. He realized he shouldn't have been, since the chances were fifty-fifty, but he was. Shoulder-length brown hair with feathery ear tufts, with the tan skin and surprisingly finely-made clothes that all Chaos possessed. She had a long thin tail ending in a feathery tuft, and the same hooked foot-claws that Yugi's Avatar had. She stirred slightly, like she could sense him looking; he turned to leave.

And she opened her eyes. They were a brilliant blue.

Yugi froze; now what?

"Hi," he murmured, not knowing what else to say.

"Hi," she returned in a small voice.

She curled up tighter and went back to sleep.

Yugi glanced at the shelf he had jumped off of, dismissed the possibility of him jumping back up, and instead slid down Elsie's side.

He was surprised when Elsie nudged him. He turned to look at her, but she simply gave him a warm look and made a muted noise deep in her throat. Yugi wanted to ask her what it was, but she nudged him off to bed.


	17. The Man in Stasis

**Chapter 17, everybody! And here we get a reference to another franchise outside of the ones mentioned in Chapter 1—_Prumm_ing is a reference to E.E. Knight's _Age of Fire_ series—go read it. It's good.**

**Kender20, thanks for the review! Yeah—he's based off of military-guy from _Avatar_, so he's pretty disdainful of the local monsters (although it seems he may have a vendetta against them…). And yes! Anzu and Yugi! And they're quite literally sitting in a tree! :D**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!,_ I do not own _Avatar,_ I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

"What was the noise?"

"It was a…throaty noise," Yugi said, trying to describe it and finding that words failed him. He gave up and simply imitated the noise.

The expressions on Mai and Vivian's faces told him a lot—they had heard that noise before.

Mai recovered first.

"It's called prumming," she said. "Chaos make that noise when they're pleased about something."

"So it's like purring?" Valon posed.

"More like if a panther purred," Vivian told him.

"Are you okay?" Yugi asked Mai; she looked a little pale.

"I'm fine," she said, standing up. "I'm going for a walk—you get some rest in the meantime."

Yugi watched her go, feeling a little resentful; it seemed like he was sleeping in this body all the time now. That couldn't be healthy for him.

So instead, he opted to follow her, leaving Vivian and Valon deep in discussion about Chaos communications.

It was fairly easy to keep up with her after a while; her brisk pace had transitioned into a slow, thoughtful walk. Yugi followed roughly a hundred yards behind, hoping that her walk to wherever didn't take too long; already he could feel his muscles weakening from the exertion.

She eventually reached her destination at a steel door. Yugi watched her enter, counted to fifty, then followed.

It took every ounce of his willpower to not suck in air at the sight.

They were stasis pods, well over two dozen. Some, he could see, held the soldiers from earlier, where they slowly recovered from their wounds. Others held people he didn't recognize.

Mai was next to one of these, her hand resting gently on the small porthole. She stood there motionless for an eternity, it seemed to Yugi.

When she finally left, Yugi minced up to the stasis pod and peered in.

It was a young man, probably in his thirties, with a long face and nose, gaunt skin, and spiky black hair. He looked like he was sleeping.

Yugi looked at the information on the readout.

_W.P.H._

_706_

_Avatar Project_

Yugi felt his blood run cold.

This was the fate that awaited him if he failed.


	18. The Roots

**Chapter 18, ladies and gents!**

**Here we see some reference to two characters who tend to show up whenever I write about Chaos Creatures….We also see a bit of Judeo-Christian thinking here. I'm Christian, it's a thing, it happens….**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!,_ I do not own _Avatar_, I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

"You're awfully quiet today."

"Really?" Yugi asked, distractedly.

Kelsey scrambled up to where he was sitting, up on top of a rock. "You haven't said three words since you woke up this morning. Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something?"

"No, I've been thinking."

"About?"

Yugi scratched at the rock experimentally, noting how easily his claws gouged lines in the hard material. "Lots of things."

"Care to share?"

Yugi watched Joey and Tristan chase each other in the small clearing near the river, debating. He couldn't exactly divulge what he was _really_ worrying about—she wouldn't know anything about any human worries, and she wouldn't care about him losing his humanity; worse, she'd tell everything to Elsie, whom he didn't want to upset _at all_—he didn't think he'd survive that encounter.

"Um," he noised, sensing that she was impatiently waiting for an answer. "Uh..." He cast about for an answer. "Er…the new girl," he said finally.

Kelsey made a pensive noise, which kind of worried him. Yes, he had checked to see if she had been all right—if peeking over the edge of the platform down to Elsie's shoulders counted as checking in—and she did seem much better. She was up and about and only twitching slightly—Yugi supposed losing her whole family would do that. He could sympathize.

Thinking about Chaos families made him wonder about other points, which he was pretty sure Mai would want to know about. "What is an average Chaos family like?" he asked.

Kelsey's expression indicated that her mind went elsewhere. "NO! _No!"_ Yugi fairly yelled, waving her off, disgusted. "Not—not _me_, I meant—I was _wondering_—you can't tell me that one adult to every fifty kids is normal."

Kelsey made another vocalization, which Yugi interpreted as irritated; he noted that Chaos Creatures used such vocalizations a lot. "No, not usually—some dips from space keep dropping in and attacking Chaos."

Yugi blinked. "Wait—are you saying _they_…attacked _you_?"

Kelsey nodded. "It was a while back. I wasn't born yet, but Elsie said some metal ships dropped down from the sky, and later people started attacking Chaos. We took care of them, but they just kept coming. So we figured, what the heck, maybe _Sheut_ kept sending them, so we stopped bothering with them."

Yugi blinked; there was that word again—he had initially thought it was a curse, but now…. "What's _Sheut?_"

"It means 'Shadow'," Kelsey explained. "Come on, I'll show you."

"Hey, where are you guys going?" Joey called over as they slid off the rock.

"I'm going to show him the roots," Kelsey called back.

"All right," Joey said, then was tackled by Tristan.

"The roots?" Yugi asked blankly.

"The roots of the tree," Kelsey explained, bounding through the forest. Yugi followed after her.

Within a few minutes, they were back in the tree. Kelsey ducked into a knothole near the floor. Yugi briefly waved at Elsie and "the new girl" before following her.

"Woah," he noised, overwhelmed.

"The Roots" were indeed the roots of the tree, spiraling down deep into the earth. But, Yugi could see, every available inch of wall and ceiling had been elaborately carved and painted, glowing paint illuminating the twists and turns.

"Chaos did this?" Yugi asked, awed.

"No, gnomes did," Kelsey snapped, rolling her eyes. "Honestly…."

Yugi faintly realized that he had been insulting, but he hadn't been able to resist asking. He had been so used to the chaotic actions of said Chaos Creatures that it had never occurred to him that they could _create_ something. He carefully examined one section, noting the tiny, painstaking detail—picturing the fidgety Chaos, he was indeed inclined to believe that gnomes _had_ done the art.

"I didn't think Chaos had the patience for this," Yugi said.

"It depends on the Chaos," Kelsey answered, less irritated. "Joey and Tristan probably couldn't do this, but you should see the way they work with metals. Auntie'd tell them not to play with their food, but she's too impressed with what they do."

Yugi nodded, then blinked as what Kelsey said sunk in. "Wait—Chaos eat _metal?"_

In response, Kelsey tapped the armor on her forearm. "Armored Chaos do. Some, like Lesser and Animal Chaos, don't have that armor, so they don't need to eat metal. But yeah—it helps keep the armor in shape."

Yugi looked at his own armor now, the implications of it sinking in; that meant the stuff was, what, _growing_ out of his _skin_? He tugged at his helmet experimentally; he felt a corresponding tug where the helmet connected to his skull.

"Obviously, that never occurred to you," Kelsey observed.

"What makes you say that?"

"You have this look," Kelsey said, then made a very horrified face.

"I'm sorry," Yugi said, making sure his sarcasm sounded polite. "But growing our own armor isn't a _thing_ back home."

To his surprise, Kelsey started laughing.

"You sounded like Wilson just then—that polite sarcasm thing," she explained. "Now come on—before I forget why we came down here."

She bounded along, Yugi following and looking every which way. "How far down do the roots go?" he asked.

"As far up as the tree does," Kelsey explained. "The whole thing is pretty sturdy—and if the tree falls, the roots will remain; that's why this all is down here."

Yugi blinked, resolving to tell the girls when he went back tonight. "Here we are!" Kelsey said, from up ahead. He quickened his pace to see what she was talking about.

It was a cool-toned painting, in a sort of Ying-Yang pose, of someone in a blue cloak and hat with a metallic monster.

"This is _Sheut_ and the Queen Bee," Kelsey explained. "They go from dimension to dimension, spreading Chaos where they go."

The metal thing did look a bit like a bee. "So they're…what, exactly?" Yugi asked, searching for the right word. "Is there like a, a pantheon, or—?"

"_No_," Kelsey replied evenly, irritation sneaking back into her voice. "Chaos are monotheistic. These guys…I suppose you could call them role models."

"So they're not—"

"No. Come on, I'll show you."

And she did, showing Chaos history and beliefs—which to Yugi, resembled one of the old tenets of Earth—all chronicled in painting and chicken-scratch that Kelsey referred to as Chaos writing.

When they finally emerged from the roots, Joey and Tristan tackled them, and they were back out and running.

Yugi, however, made sure to ponder what he had seen closely, for later recounting.


	19. The Bad Dream Part II

**Chapter 19, everybody! Let's see what these fools are up to….And yes, there really are theories about that sort of thing.**

**Yuko13, thanks for the review, favorite, and subsequent conversation! I shall do my best to continue to please! :D**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_, I do not own _Avatar,_ I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

When he woke up back in the compound, it was to find he had been out for two days.

"Chaos Creatures can go for days without sleep," Mai told him, although it was with that same worried look she had the other day.

"I wish you had told me," Yugi said, tearing into his sandwich. _Man_, he was hungry.

"Well, I didn't expect you to spend all night underground," Mai shot back.

"Hey, hey, don't fight," Valon said, coming over with more food. "You'd think you'd be happy about all this—the Chaos having literature and stuff like that."

"I am," Mai said, sounding less tetchy. "We hadn't expected Chaos to have that level of literature, or even for them to be concerned with chronicling their own history."

"Or religion," Vivian added, accepting a sandwich and soda from Valon. "This _Sheut_ and Queen Bee…can you tell me more about them?"

"They're…they're like—well, Kelsey said they were…not uh, in worship-receiving roles," Yugi said, struggling to describe something in human terms that made so much sense in Chaos—

Wait, why was he thinking like that?

_Stop it,_ he chided, then focused on describing it better. "They bring Chaos Creatures wherever they go."

"To other planets, even?" Mai asked, interested.

"No," Yugi said, realizing something. "She didn't say _planets_—she said _dimensions_. So that means…."

"—That Chaos believe there are alternate dimensions to ours," Vivian said.

"Is that even possible?" Valon asked.

"There are some theories that alternate dimensions exist," Mai supplied. "But no one knows how to prove those theories, or even access them. Some think that maybe wormholes could be used, but…."

They fell silent at that and glanced at Yugi. He could figure out why. "Boy, I'm tired," he said, standing up. "I'm gonna go…take a nap."

He wasn't tired at all, really—but he didn't need that reminder of why he was really here.

Because their first choice was dead and gone.

* * *

><p>Yugi arrived back at the room and sat down for a bit, recollecting himself. He was being stupid, he knew. They appreciated him. They really did.<p>

_But they wanted Yami first._

Yugi sighed heavily. He didn't want to think about that.

He glanced over into the other room, with the ironing beds.

Well, there was a way to think of something else….

* * *

><p>Yugi woke up in a tangle of warm bodies, the results of a sleeping Chaos pile. No aches, no pains, no worries.<p>

_Stop that_, he chided, realizing he was being stupid. He extracted himself and snuck over to the knothole that led onto the branch. He wondered if he could see the stars from there.

He blinked when he noticed someone was already on the branch. "Hello?" he asked, unsure who it could be. He could call out if it was someone untoward—

"Hello yourself."

Yugi blinked again. Did he answer himself without realizing it? Whoever it was sounded just like him in his Avatar—

And then the stranger stepped into the moonlight, revealing his identity.

It was Yami.


	20. The Time for Tea Is

**Chapter 20, ladies and gentlemen! I feel as though we've hit a landmark….**

**Yuko13, thanks for the review! I'm glad you liked the last chapter—but I'm afraid I may have pulled a fast one on you….**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!,_ I do not own _Avatar,_ I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

"Yugi! _Yugi!"_

Yugi woke up with a yelp, startled and disoriented. In bed? Where—how—

Ah, that was right—he couldn't figure out how to work the ironing beds by himself, and had given up and gone to bed. But that dream had been so _vivid_….

And so worryingly like another dream he had had of flying….

He looked up and realized Valon was looking at him worriedly. "I'm all right," Yugi said. "I…I just had a bad dream."

Valon gave a small smile, but it was strained. "Must have been some dream."

He had no idea.

Valon sat down on Yugi's bed, indicating to Yugi that he wanted to talk. "What is it?" Yugi asked.

"Well," Valon began, then shrugged. "I'm just kinda worried about you, is all."

"Worried? About me? Why?"

"Well, when I first met you, you were this shy little kid that jumped at his own shadow," Valon said, gesturing a bit. "And now…I realize I don't know you all that well, but lately you've seemed…withdrawn. I mean, you say a lot, but it's like it's just token words to keep people from focusing on you."

"I don't like people focusing on me."

"Yeah, I get that. But…." Valon pulled his feet up in a cross-legged position. "I lost me folks when I was five. My grams took me in. And…for the longest time, I didn't talk to anyone. I just hung out in her little dirt patch of a yard and looked for bugs."

Yugi nodded, prompting him to continue. "And…one day, Grams took me in the house, sat me down on the couch, put tissues and tea and cakes on the table, and made me talk to her about…about everything."

Yugi blinked. He hadn't thought….Yugi had lost his parents too, but he had been too young to remember. And Yami had never shown any indication of it bothering him….

"Anyway," Valon continued finally. "I just…y'know, wanted to let you know…I'm around if you ever need to…I don't know, have some tea."

Yugi smiled a bit, then felt it fall. "Your grams…."

"She's dead," Valon said bluntly, then softened. "She was a right old lady, though, right up till she died."

"And have you had any tea about it?"

Valon blinked, then laughed a bit. "I guess I'm overdue, huh?"

Yugi smiled, feeling better about the whole deal. "We'll have a tea party sometime. We'll ask the girls if they have any tea and cakes hanging around."

"They'd know where it'd be!"

Yugi chuckled along with him, then sobered up. "They could probably use it too."

"What makes you say that?"

"The other day, when I was talking about Elsie," Yugi explained carefully. "When Mai walked off—I followed her. And…there's this whole wing full of people who…I guess got…sucked into their Avatars."

Valon went wide-eyed and very still. If he were in his Chaos form, he would have wilfed. "Woah, that's really a thing? I thought those girls made it up so we'd behave."

"It's really a thing."

Valon was quiet for a moment. "Well, we'll make those girls some tea. We'll make a whole thing of it. They're looking for you, by the way."

Yugi nodded and followed Valon out. He had gone a long way in making Yugi feel better.

And yet Yugi still had a cold knot in his stomach when he thought of the man in the stasis pod.

_That's what awaits me if I fail._

_That's what awaits me if I fail._

_If I fail…._

_You say that like it's a bad thing._

Yugi felt a shiver go up his spine. That last bit had sounded too much like Yami for his taste. Was he being haunted?

Valon glanced over at him. "Someone step on your grave?"

Yugi stared at him. "It's something my Grams said," Valon muttered.

Yugi shook it off and continued on his way.

* * *

><p>As it was, they both missed the third presence in the room.<p>

Which was fine by the presence—he enjoyed being left to his own devices.

_Now to sow some more Chaos._


	21. The Top of the Tree

**Chapter 21, and the beginnings of romantic subplot and subsequent panicking….**

**Yuko13, thanks for the review(s)! Good to know you caught that—and good question! We shall have to stick around to find out….And that's a good place to be, by the way. :)**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!,_ I do not own _Avatar,_ I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

Yugi woke up to a strange energy in the tree.

"What's going on?" he asked Kelsey, who had jauntily come in with a bundle of fruit.

"It's about that time of year again," she said.

Yugi blinked, then gained a look of consternation as what she said took on meaning. "Wait—what?"

"Not _that_ time of year," she scolded, throwing an orange at his head. "Every year about this time Wilson comes visiting. He always brings toys and such for us."

Yugi glanced at the stuffed animals and realized where they must have all come from. "He's that important?"

"Very," Kelsey said, pulling him up. "Come on, we've got to get to the top of the tree before all the good seats are taken."

"Wait—what?"

* * *

><p>The top of the tree was not as bad as Yugi had feared.<p>

On the contrary, the top part of the tree trunk was big, round, and flat, making a huge plateau for Chaos to congregate. The rings made a hypnotizing effect, and one or two Chaoslings were dancing in the middle.

All around the plateau, branches big enough to comfortably support Elsie rose up, making perfect perches. The branches would split into smaller and smaller branches, with the ones up higher anchoring the floating islands.

Yugi asked Kelsey about them.

"They're floating islands," Kelsey said simply. "They float around, and some grow vines that get caught in tree branches like on this tree. Some Chaos go up there to fly off."

Yugi couldn't even _begin_ to imagine jumping off of them. "How do they float?"

"I have no idea. Wilson would know—he's nerdy enough."

They were on a branch that sloped up then leveled off, giving a nice view of the plateau. Yugi hadn't stopped looking around since they arrived—he was currently marveling at the dense canopy keeping the light drizzle out.

"I wonder how long it took for this tree to grow this big," he mused.

In response, Kelsey slid off, pulling Yugi with her.

They spent the next hour or so trying to count the rings on the plateau. It proved to be a fruitless gesture, as Yugi kept losing count at five hundred and Kelsey refused to count much past six hundred.

"How come?" he asked her.

"Six isn't a good number for Chaos," she replied simply.

Yugi shrugged, sensing he wasn't going to get much more out of her. He crouched down near the center and looked at the rings there, too close together to even begin counting. "How does this thing grow with the center hollowed out like it is?"

"Something about Chaos living in it," Kelsey said, trying to count the rings and giving up. "You can ask Wilson when he gets here."

"This guy must know a lot," Yugi said sardonically, beginning to get sick of hearing about this Wilson guy.

"Well, he does know a lot, but it's mostly because he does a lot of," here she waffled her hand, as though she were searching for a phrase. "Research, that's it. And he asks a lot of weird questions like you do."

"He's strange even by Chaos standards," Tristan said, bounding over and crouching to see what they were doing. "What are you looking at?"

"We're trying to count the rings on the tree."

"Probably over a thousand," Tristan said, before Joey collided with him in a running tackle.

"Why that number?" Yugi asked.

They rolled, Tristan flat on the ground before answering. "Because you got to five hundred and weren't even half-way across," he supplied, sounding distinctly squashed beneath Joey. "Maybe two-thousand, since they get tighter when you get closer to the center."

Yugi blinked at the math demonstration, then decided to leave it lie. No sense in insulting these guys when he was several thousand feet off the ground. Yeesh, he couldn't even tell up here. "So when is this Wilson coming?"

"No idea," the three said at once.

Yugi blinked at them. "You said he comes around this time."

"Yeah," Joey said.

"But you don't know the _day?"_

"What is it with this guy and having to have an exact date for everything?" Joey muttered to Tristan.

Yugi sighed and shook his head. There was no reasoning with these people. He headed back to the branch they had vacated, but paused in a patch of sun. It felt good. It felt _really_ good. He glanced over at the three, noted they were busy play-fighting. Good. He really didn't want anyone to see him potentially make a fool of himself.

He took a deep breath and tried to spread his wings.

He had no idea which muscles to use or how to spread them properly. One sort of slipped, then snapped back into place. He sighed and shook his head—no dice.

He felt someone watching him and turned around.

It was the new girl, near one of the knotholes used to achieve the plateau. And she looked like she was laughing at him.

"What's so funny?" he asked, tilting his head up slightly. He blinked at that—that was a distinctively Chaosian action, and the fact that he had done it without thinking probably wasn't good.

She twisted a claw in the wood next to her and smiled slightly. "Well…you act funny," she told him.

He blinked and took a few steps towards her. "And how do I act funny?"

"Just the way you walk around, and the way you look at people," she said, leaning against the wood and tilting her head at him. He was recognizing the upward head tilt as a minor challenge.

"Oh, and I'm sure _that's_ normal," he said, indicating Joey, Tristan, and Kelsey, who had formed a knot of claws and teeth in their fight.

"Yes, actually, that's normal."

"Well, for _them_ it is…."

"All the Chaos I knew acted like that."

Yugi was about to respond, until he realized the entirety of her statement. "I'm—I'm sorry about…."

She shook her head. "It's not like it's your fault."

Ugh. Like he could explain _that_. Yes, it wasn't his fault, but he couldn't help but feel that it was _sort of_ his fault.

"Thank you, by the way," she said suddenly.

He blinked. "For what?"

"For coming to check on me."

And she gave him a light kiss on the end of his nose and bounded off.

Kelsey came over.

"You've been standing stock-still for five minutes," she observed. "What's wrong with you?"

"This is very, _very_ bad," Yugi declared.


	22. The Uncomfortable Conversation

**Chapter 22, everybody! In which Valon plays Dr. Phil...sort of….**

**Kender20, thanks for the review! Thanks! We'll definitely be seeing more of Anzu, I can guarantee it. :) Yes, who is this Wilson? That…will not be answered this month….But it will be in February. :D And awesome! I look forward to it! :D**

**Yuko13, thanks for the review! I believe that's definitely a contributing factor. :) I update this one Wednesdays and Fridays, but I might bump it up to three times a week—I'd have to think about it.**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_, I do not own _Avatar,_ I _do_ own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).**

"Do _what?_"

"Not so _loud!"_ Yugi hissed. "You can't tell the girls."

"Can't tell them what, that a Chaos girl is putting the moves on you?" Valon asked, glancing around for Mai or Vivian.

"I know, I know—it's messed up," Yugi moaned. "I gotta figure out a way to let her down gently." Something occurred to him. "What if it isn't what I think?" he asked Valon. "I mean, that could just be an innocent thing!"

"Don't you think someone else would have done it before now?"

"Maybe….I know! I'll ask Kelsey—she'll know!"

"She's a blabbermouth!"

"What about Joey or Tristan?"

"'_Yugi's in lo-ove, Yugi's in lo-ove—'"_

"Augh!" Yugi noised, flopping down on his back as carefully as possible. "What am I going to do with this girl?"

"Learn her name?" Valon suggested.

"I can't _date_ her, or whatever it is Chaos do."

Valon tapped his chin. "I know! Ask that Elsie!"

"_Elsie?"_ Yugi asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, she's an adult….Well, more so than the rest of us…."

"She'll know I'm not a _real_ Chaos," Yugi argued.

"Then she'll talk to the girl. Unless you think you're enough of a ladies' man to let the girl down gently."

Yugi let out a long, irritated sigh.

But unfortunately, Valon had a point.

* * *

><p>"Um…Elsie?"<p>

That great head turned to look at him. "Oh, Yami dear! What is it?"

It took every fiber of his being not to wilf down at the attention, but he had to carry on this conversation. "Can I talk to you? In private?"

Something in the way she tilted her head and half-closed her eyes gave Yugi the impression that she had been expecting this somehow. She shifted a bit, put a hand (which was all he could really call it—it had the same basic shape as a human hand) down next to him, and herded him closer. When he was close enough, she set her head on the ground so it was hidden from anyone looking, but able to look him in the eye.

"Is this good enough, dear?"

Considering Yugi had wanted to bolt every second of the way, no. "I guess it's fine."

"Now what did you want to talk about?"

Yugi fidgeted. "The uh…the new girl…."

"Anzu."

"Huh?"

"Her name—the 'new girl'—is Anzu, if that was what you were wondering." Something sharp entered her expression. "But that wasn't what you wanted to talk about."

"Ah….No, not really," Yugi admitted. "It's—I—I think…she likes me. Like _like_ likes me."

"Oh how _splendid!"_ Elsie crooned. Yugi flinched again as she set about grooming him. "You should feel lucky—most Chaos go _centuries_ without ever meeting their intended."

Centuries? How long did Chaos live? And better yet, _intended?_ "No wait—Elsie—I _can't._ I'm not…really a Chaos," Yugi finished quietly.

Elsie brought her eye back to his level again.

"Because of where you come from, is that it?"

Yugi nodded.

"Don't be foolish," she chided. "I've seen plenty come from there who were every bit a Chaos as I am. You know what I think?" she asked, lowering her voice. "I think you're just afraid of commitment."

"No…I just don't think it'd work."

"You're just not thinking positive."

"I…don't think I'm ready for commitment yet."

There. That was the magic word. She tilted her head again, then nodded slightly. "I'll talk to her, then."

She moved her hand away. Yugi ducked his head, thanked her, and managed not to run until he was out of her sight.


	23. The Revenge of the Drum Snake

**Chapter 23, everybody, and the return of a certain something….**

**Yuko13, thanks for the review! Yep, that's the update schedule—although I think I'll bump it up to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule once "What Lies Beneath" finishes up, so what I post can catch up with what I've written. Fascinating! That means that depending on how you look at it, I'm receiving a review from the future….**

**Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_, I do not own _Avatar,_ I _do_ own Chaos Creatures and Drum Snakes, etc., et al…).**

Kelsey found Yugi later lying on his stomach on one of the basking rocks by the river.

"What's the matter with you?" she asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Yugi told her.

"Hmm," she noised, sitting on a lower rock. "Say, that new girl—"

"Anzu."

"Huh?"

"Her name is Anzu."

"Oh. Well, she's been asking about you."

"And?"

"I told her you were a weirdo."

"Thanks."

"You sound sincere."

"You sound surprised."

"Well," she noised, then paused. "How do you know her name?"

"I talked to Elsie about her."

_"Ahhh…._"

"Don't. Just don't."

"Fine. Oh look, here she comes now."

Yugi glanced over to see that yes indeed, Anzu was loping their way.

"I should leave," Yugi decided.

"Don't be rude."

Yugi tried to slip away, but Kelsey grabbed his tail. "Come on!" she chided. "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't—"

Unfortunately, Joey and Tristan noticed and must have thought that he was finally getting into the playing swing of things. The resulting double-tackle sent them rolling into the jungle.

"Ack! Off of me! _Get off!"_ Yugi yelled, trying to work his way out from beneath them.

He froze.

Over their yelping and chiding and _honestly_s he could hear a very familiar sound, one he wasn't wont to forget.

A sinister, dry, scraping noise.

"We've got to go," Yugi said, fear making his voice breathy. "We've got to go!" he said again, stronger this time.

"What? Why—"

The trees broke, the forest parted—

The Drum Snake reared its ugly head.

Everyone scattered.

Yugi froze.

_MOVE, YUGI!_

He bolted just as the Drum Snake let loose one of its percussive blasts.

The world rocked and tilted, he hit the ground running, shoulder dragging, ears ringing—

He managed to sit up in time to see the snake slithering over to where Anzu and a few other Chaos were frozen.

Dimly aware of Kelsey bolting for the tree and Elsie….

_Not going to make it in time…._

_Have to do something…._

He shook his head vigorously and steeled himself.

He was about to do something ridiculously insane.

But there was no time to think about it.

Yugi dashed up the length of the Drum Snake, claws digging into its scales, clinging for dear life when it sensed him and started thrashing. He slowly made his way up to the snake's head—it started bashing its head against the nearby rocks to be rid of him.

But he had to keep clinging on—had to. There had to be _one_ weakness that the snake had—

And he was looking right into it.

This must have been what a mouse felt looking into the eye of a snake. Poisonous yellow and full of hate, the Drum Snake's eye had sentience in it—but of an evil sort, like it _enjoyed_ causing pain and terror.

Yugi freed one hand, flexed his claws—

And buried it in the Drum Snake's eye.

The hard sclera gave way and his arm sank up to his shoulder into the nasty jelly inside. The snake writhed anew, but he couldn't let go—letting go was death—he had to hang on—

He went flying, arcing through the air—

And right before he hit the ground, he glimpsed Elsie with her jaws around the snake's throat—

And then the impact, and he thought no more.


End file.
